Fertility tracking app Premom, owned by Easy Healthcare, has been criticized by the Federal Trade Commissionwhich alleged that the company was sharing consumer health data with third parties like Google, AppsFlyer and two China-based analytics and marketing companies for advertising purposes without users’ consent.
Premom is a free app that offers fertility tracking tools, including period and ovulation tracking. The company also sells ovulation test kits.
The FTC investigation found that the company shared users’ personal health information with third parties, such as identifiable location and health information and app activities related to fertility, menstruation and pregnancy of users.
According to the Commission, the company failed to disclose to users that it would share their health information while misleading users about its data sharing practices. The FTC also says the company violated the health breach notification rule, which requires companies that collect personal health information to notify users and the government of a data breach by failing to notify the users of its practices.
Premom has been instructed to refrain from sharing health information with third parties for advertising or other purposes without users’ consent, to implement a comprehensive privacy and security program to protect the information users and to tell third parties to delete the information collected without the users. authorisation.
Easy Healthcare was ordered to pay a settlement fee of $200,000 and is prohibited from sharing user data for advertising purposes and with third parties without users’ consent.
“Premom broke its promises and compromised consumer privacy,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau, said in a press release. “We will vigorously enforce the Health Breach Notification Rule to defend consumer health data from exploitation. Companies that collect this information should be aware that the FTC will not tolerate breaches of health privacy. “
THE GREAT TREND
After Roe v. Wade was overturnedsome have argued that personal data could be used against people who may have requested an abortion.
Late last year, ten state attorneys general sent a letter to Apple urging the tech giant to add new protections for reproductive health data contained in third-party apps hosted on the App Store.
The Federal Trade Commission has cracked down on the companies for their data-sharing practices.
In February, the FTC alleged drug cost and telehealth platform GoodRx shared consumers’ personal health information with third parties like Google and Facebook for advertising purposes.
The agency also said GoodRx allows third parties to use this data for their own internal purposes, misrepresents its HIPAA compliance, and fails to establish policies on how it should protect its users’ personal health information. .
The company agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine to settle the case, but admitted no wrongdoing.